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THURSDAY JULY 16 — SUNDAY JULY 19, 2015
AT JERUSALEM FILM FESTIVAL www.ScreenDaily.com
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All pictures by Nir Shaanani
Atia, Hamoud, Shumunov triumph at Pitch Point Ira Deutchman
Deutchman foresees shake-up in distribution BY MATT MUELLER
At his Pitch Point panel on Tuesday, veteran US producer and distributor Ira Deutchman declared that independent companies will continue to lead the charge on the window experimentation shaking up the US distribution landscape. While he described as “designed to fail” the recent deal between Paramount Pictures and AMC Theatres to reduce the exclusive window between theatrical release and other platforms — considered sacrosanct by US exhibitors — from three months to two weeks for two upcoming releases, he also stressed that studios are watching the adventurous models being tested out by independent distributors. “The reality is that Paramount picked two really bad movies that weren’t likely to do good business either theatrically or on VoD,” said Deutchman. Nonetheless, he said it was a sign studios are testing the waters, adding that Ultra VoD, which sees a film released on VoD before its theatrical release at a premium price, is “the business the studios really want to be in”. “The potential is there to create a lot of word of mouth about a movie during its VoD release and then use that to release the film in cinemas,” he said. “The studios think they can make a fortune by allowing big family-oriented movies on VoD prior to theatrical. The only reason they’re not already doing it is because exhibitors are kicking up a fuss.” Deutchman was joined on the panel by Israeli distributor Yaron Kaftori, who noted Israel differs from the US in that there is no insistence on a VoD window. “In some cases in Israel, it might be better for a director or producer to release the movie themselves,” said Kaftori.
BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW
Debut feature directors Yossi Atia, Maysaloun Hamoud and Roman Shumunov have picked up prizes at the 10th edition of Pitch Point, aimed at connecting Israeli productions with international partners. Performance artist and filmmaker Atia’s Born In Jerusalem And Still Alive won the $4,400 Wouter Barendrecht — Lia Van Leer award. A dark comedy based on Atia’s personal experiences, the film revolves around a man who organises terror tours along Jaffa Road in west Jerusalem, the site of a number of deadly suicide attacks during the second Intifada. The jury — which included US distribution guru Ira Deutchman, Fortissimo Films’ MD
Nelleke Driessen and German producer Thanassis Karathanos — praised the project for its “unique and original take on a tough and emotional subject matter.” Shumunov clinched the $5,300 Van Leer Foundation award for No Future, about Israeli rappers and graffiti artists of Russian origin struggling to make ends meet in the city of Ashdod. “The film has the potential to be a unique, sensitive and authentic voice of an important ethnic group in Israel,” said the jury. Palestinian director Maysaloun Hamoud’s In Between picked up two prizes: the Turkish YAPIMLAB Award, offering development support of $5,500, and the IFP Award, which involves an invitation to the
Independent Film Market Project in New York this September. Israeli film-maker and producer Shlomi Elkabetz is producing the tale of two liberal Palestinian girls living in Tel Aviv, struggling to find their place in society. Hamoud told the pitching event that the work was a reflection of her own experiences. Two prizes for the works-in-progress showcase were introduced this year. The Digital District Workin-Progress Award went to Elite Zexer’s Sand Storm about a Bedouin mother and daughter testing the limits of their conservative community. Udi Aloni’s biopic about Palestinian rapper Tamer Nafar won the Jerusalem Film and Television Fund Award for a work-in-progress.
TODAY
Remembering Lia van Leer, p3
TRIBUTE The godmother Friends and industry pay their respects to Lia van Leer » Page 3
SPOTLIGHT Thru You Princess Exploring the origins of this year’s festival buzz title » Page 6
Final print daily This is Screen’s last print daily of Jerusalem 2015. For the rest of our festival news, check out ScreenDaily.com
John Heyman
Heyman reflects on a life in film BY MATT MUELLER
Director Yossi Atia accepts the Wouter Barendrecht — Lia Van Leer award at the 10th edition of Pitch Point for his project Born In Jerusalem And Still Alive
Maftsir continues former USSR Holocaust tour BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW
Documentary-maker Boris Maftsir flew to Moldova this week to shoot the latest instalment of his ambitious seven-film work, piecing together the untold story of the Holocaust in the countries of the former Soviet Union. He is aiming to film scenes for Til The Last Step, looking at the small rebellions in ghettos in Moldova and neighbouring Belarus.
“The uniqueness of this project is that he doesn’t use any archival footage but rather tries to film in every place on the same day a massacre happened,” explained documentary sales agent Ruth Diskin who is handling the work. “There are very few witnesses left but he has managed to find a few, who he takes back to the sites.” Til The Last Step will be a continuation of the first work in the
series, The Guardians Of Remembrance, which focused on the Holocaust in Belarus. In between filming, Maftsir has also been busy editing the second and third instalments: Holocaust — The Eastern Front, uncovering the fate of Jews in Russia during the Second World War, and Beyond The Nistru River, about an area in southwest Ukraine where more than 130,000 Jewish deportees met their deaths.
Veteran UK producer John Heyman was the recipient of the festiv a l’s A c h i e v e m e n t Aw a rd , presented to him during the Pitch Point reception at the Tower of David in Jerusalem’s Old City. “Thank you to the festival for even noticing my existence,” said a gracious Heyman, whose family fled to the UK from Germany in the 1930s. Earlier in the day, Heyman sat down with Screen reviewer Dan Fainaru to reflect on a career that saw him head up the most powerful agency in the world outside of the US before he moved into producing. Among his credits are Joseph Losey’s The Go-Between. Heyman regaled the audience with anecdotes, some involving his son David, who shepherded the Harry Potter franchise. “When David first bought the rights, he really felt it was going to be a nice little English picture,” he said. He also expressed pointed opinions about the current state of the film industry. “One should question the morality of spending $250m to make a film,” Heyman said. “The producer has increasingly become the protector of the budget. That is often a conflict of interest, and not what a producer should be.”